10. THE GREAT SANTINI
54 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Lewis John Carlino | 115 mins | Drama Robert Duvall | Blythe Danner | Michael O'Keefe
“A terrible title for a stirring and somewhat old-fashioned movie about family values. Robert DuVall deserves bravos for his commanding portrayal of a pig-headed but fascinating Marine pilot who treats his wife (Blythe Danner) and four children as if he were commanding a squadron. An understated movie of many moods that takes a slow but strong hold on your emotions.” – Donna Chernin, Cleveland Plain Dealer
9. AIRPLANE!
54 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS Jim Abrahams, David Zucker & Jerry Zucker | 88 mins | Comedy Robert Hays | Julie Hagerty | Leslie Nielsen
“This marvelous, full-bodied, nut-packed parody, having been directed by three people, is the exception to the above statement. Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker not only wrote the screenplay together, they then directed it in some sort of magical collaboration. However they did it, ”Airplane!” is the most thoroughly satisfying movie spoof since Mel Brooks’s ”Young Frankenstein.” The immediate point of departure is an old 1950’s, airplanein-distress movie called ”Zero Hour,” but it also successfully nails the various ”Airport” movies. Even its advertising campaign (”What’s slower than a speeding bullet, and often hits tall buildings?”) is first-rate.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
8. THE STUNT MAN
57 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Richard Rush | 131 mins | Action/Comedy/Drama Peter O'Toole | Steve Railsback | Barbara Hershey
“Why this movie hasn’t caught on with the public is a bit of a mystery but it may be the boldest piece of filmmaking of 1980. Peter O’Toole commands the screen as a tyrannical film director who manipulates people by lying, tormenting and cajoling them with his egomaniacal bravado. Steve Railsback shines in the title role as a fugitive who stumbles onto a film set and under O’Toole’s spell. Director Richard Rush also has a good time manipulating the audience, getting lost in that gray area between fantasy and reality. The film is a dizzying whirlwind of visual mind games that leaves you exhausted but exhilarated.” – Tony DeSena, The Aquarius
7. MELVIN AND HOWARD
60 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Jonathan Demme | 95 mins | Comedy/Drama Paul Le Mat | Jason Robards | Elizabeth Cheshire
“This film has more weak points than any other film on my list. But its high points are so memorable that it demands inclusion. It’s an off-beat version of the classic American story of a poor boy on the threshold of becoming a multimillionaire because of a good deed. Melvin rescues an apparent derelict in the desert. It just so happens that the person he saves is Howard – Howard Hughes. The performances by Jason Robards as Hughes and Paul LeMat as Melvin Dummar are perfectly in tune with director Jonathan Demme’s vision. Dummar doesn’t end up wealthy or smart but his story is worth a million dollars.” – Michael Blowen, Boston Globe
6. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
64 LISTS | 5 TOP SPOTS Irvin Kershner | 124 mins | Action/Adventure/Fantasy Mark Hamill | Harrison Ford | Carrie Fisher
“’Why don’t they make movies like The Adventures of Robin Hood anymore?’ an old-timer asks. Actually they do; the movies are simply set in outer space instead of medieval England. This sequel was as good as its illustrious predecessor Star Wars, even if it left us dangling at the end. And thanks to both Yoda and Harrison Ford for percolating the action.” – Philip Wuntch, Dallas News
5. BREAKER MORANT
74 LISTS | 6 TOP SPOTS Bruce Beresford | 107 mins | Drama/History/War Edward Woodward | Jack Thompson | John Waters
“Australia to the rescue again, with a riveting beautifully photographed and brilliantly directed drama about a military court-martial in 1901, a year before the end of the Boer War. In a desert outpost in South Africa, two Australians and one Englishman were tried and convicted for murdering Boer prisoners and a German missionary, insisting that the killings were carried out under orders from the British commander, Lord Kitchener himself. Assigned a defense lawyer who had never tried a case, and ignored by their own officers, who fled before they could testify, these victims became unwilling and innocent pawns in a shameful case of political expedience. Jack Thompson, as the desperate defense attorney, became a major star, and Bruce Beresford catapulted to the front ranks of International directors. This is powerful history, filmed with the urgency and suspense of a great mystery story. Bravo, Australia.” – Rex Reed
4. COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER
77 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Michael Apted | 124 mins | Biography/Drama/Music Sissy Spacek | Tommy Lee Jones | Levon Helm
“Movies about the rise of musical stars are usually pretty awful, like “Honeysuckle Rose,” or look fake, like “The Buddy Holly Story.” Although “Coal Miner’s Daughter” has little plot, British director Michael Apted has created a movie about country singer Loretta Lynn that is warm and resonant. The scenes set in West Virginia look like Dorothea Lange photographs. The movie’s primary emphasis is how Lynn’s family saved her from professional pressure. Sissy Spacek turns in an ingratiating performance as Lynn, and does her own singing, which ain’t bad. Also marvelous is Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline and Tommy Lee Jones as Lynn’s husband.” – John Stark, San Francisco Examiner
3. THE ELEPHANT MAN
78 LISTS | 9 TOP SPOTS David Lynch | 124 mins | Biography/Drama Anthony Hopkins | John Hurt | Anne Bancroft
“In retelling the true story of Jahn Merrick (John Hurt), the 19th-century sideshow freak whose terrible deformity masked a civilized soul, writer-director David Lynch creates a tension between horror and sentiment that sets the emotions churning. This is not a perfect film – it often drifts towards bathos – but it’s a hypnotic one. Freddie Francis’s black-and-white cinematography conjures up a spellbinding nightmare of Dickensian London, and John Hurt, laboring under pounds of disfiguring make-up, conveys the tragic beauty of a humanity stripped to its elements.” – Stephen Schiff, Boston Phoenix
2. RAGING BULL
82 LISTS | 16 TOP SPOTS Martin Scorsese | 129 mins | Biography/Drama/Sport Robert De Niro | Cathy Moriarty | Joe Pesci
“Pouring over a stack of the past year’s reviews and reflecting on their contents, I was struck at how many of the truly fine films were foreign – or, to put it another way, how few of the good movies were American. The best of the American films, though, displayed an emotional power rarely matched by the imports. Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” for my money the finest domestic production of the year, stands alone for sheer demonic forcefulness. Robert De Niro’s strong and shrewd portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta as a wild beast obsessed by sexual jealousy becomes something that is purely American and yet subtly alien. The coarse language of “Raging Bull” is unadulterated urban American, as are the manners and mores of La Motta’s thuggish world. But Scorsese’s spititual center of vision, his concern with La Motta’s sinfulness, is as old-world as St. Augustine or St. Paul.” – Alan Berger, Boston Herald
1. ORDINARY PEOPLE
119 LISTS | 30 TOP SPOTS Robert Redford | 124 mins | Drama Donald Sutherland | Mary Tyler Moore | Judd Hirsch
“Proof that a Hollywood movie can be personal. The film’s appeal derives from its sensitive treatment of a contemporary American phenomenon, the spiritual and psychological erosion of the affluent American family. Director Robert Redford elicits an astonishing performance from Mary Tyler Moore playing a suburban matriarch who survives by ignoring all the alarming signs of stress in her family and pretending that everything is fine.” – Bruce McCabe, Boston Globe
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ordinary People | 119 | 30 | 3.1 | 76% | 30% | 40 | 11 | 74% | 29% |
| 2 | Raging Bull | 82 | 16 | 3.0 | 51% | 16% | 34 | 5 | 63% | 13% |
| 3 | The Elephant Man | 78 | 9 | 4.6 | 50% | 9% | 22 | 2 | 41% | 5% |
| 4 | Coal Miner's Daughter | 77 | 1 | 5.2 | 49% | 1% | 22 | 0 | 41% | 0% |
| 5 | Breaker Morant | 74 | 6 | 5.0 | 44% | 5% | 25 | 3 | 46% | 8% |
| 6 | The Empire Strikes Back | 64 | 5 | 5.3 | 41% | 5% | 24 | 1 | 44% | 3% |
| 7 | Melvin and Howard | 60 | 4 | 5.1 | 36% | 4% | 24 | 2 | 44% | 5% |
| 8 | The Stunt Man | 57 | 1 | 5.6 | 36% | 1% | 21 | 0 | 39% | 0% |
| 9 | Airplane! | 54 | 0 | 6.7 | 34% | 0% | 18 | 0 | 33% | 0% |
| 10 | The Great Santini | 54 | 0 | 5.7 | 34% | 0% | 15 | 0 | 28% | 0% |
| 11 | The Tin Drum | 46 | 1 | 5.1 | 29% | 1% | 18 | 1 | 33% | 3% |
| 12 | My Brilliant Career | 46 | 4 | 5.5 | 29% | 4% | 16 | 1 | 30% | 3% |
| 13 | Tess | 46 | 2 | 5.3 | 27% | 2% | 14 | 1 | 26% | 3% |
| 14 | My Bodyguard | 41 | 1 | 6.6 | 26% | 1% | 7 | 0 | 13% | 0% |
| 15 | Dressed to Kill | 38 | 1 | 6.0 | 24% | 1% | 12 | 0 | 22% | 0% |
| 16 | Stardust Memories | 37 | 1 | 5.6 | 24% | 1% | 14 | 0 | 26% | 0% |
| 17 | Kagemusha | 38 | 3 | 4.3 | 23% | 3% | 12 | 1 | 22% | 3% |
| 18 | Fame | 35 | 0 | 5.4 | 22% | 0% | 11 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 19 | Mon Oncle d'Amerique | 32 | 3 | 5.4 | 20% | 3% | 14 | 2 | 26% | 5% |
| 20 | Wise Blood | 28 | 1 | 4.4 | 18% | 1% | 10 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 21 | The Long Riders | 26 | 0 | 6.7 | 17% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 22 | The Shining | 23 | 1 | 6.6 | 15% | 1% | 8 | 0 | 15% | 0% |
| 23 | Return of the Secaucus Seven | 24 | 2 | 4.8 | 15% | 2% | 13 | 1 | 24% | 3% |
| 24 | Best Boy | 22 | 1 | 5.9 | 14% | 1% | 10 | 1 | 19% | 3% |
| 25 | The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | 20 | 2 | 3.7 | 12% | 2% | 5 | 1 | 9% | 3% |
| 26 | Angi Vera | 19 | 0 | 6.5 | 12% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 17% | 0% |
| 27 | Brubaker | 16 | 0 | 6.8 | 10% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 28 | Resurrection | 16 | 0 | 7.0 | 10% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 29 | Altered States | 16 | 2 | 5.0 | 10% | 2% | 7 | 1 | 13% | 3% |
| 30 | Gloria (1980) | 15 | 0 | 6.8 | 9% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 31 | The Big Red One | 14 | 0 | 6.2 | 9% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 11% | 0% |
| 32 | Every Man For Himself | 14 | 0 | 4.4 | 9% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 15% | 0% |
| 33 | Urban Cowboy | 13 | 0 | 6.4 | 8% | 0% | 1 | 0 | 2% | 0% |
| 34 | Popeye | 12 | 0 | 8.0 | 8% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 35 | Bad Timing | 12 | 1 | 4.3 | 8% | 1% | 4 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 36 | Private Benjamin | 11 | 0 | 7.2 | 7% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 37 | Bye Bye Brazil | 10 | 0 | 5.4 | 6% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
Lists Included 157 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 54
R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year
TCL Number of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1 Number of times that the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL% Percentage of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1% Percentage of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists